This application claims the benefit of the Korean Application No. P2002-49487 filed on Aug. 21, 2002, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a clothes dryer, and more particularly, to a condensing type clothes dryer including a condenser having good heat-exchange efficiency.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In general, a clothes dryer is an apparatus for drying clothes by removing moisture from wet clothes (laundry) with a blast of a hot air from a heater. The clothes dryer is largely classified into an exhausting-type drying machine and a condensing-type drying machine according to a method for processing humid air generated while drying the wet clothes. In the exhausting-type clothes dryer, the humid air generated while drying the wet clothes in a drum is exhausted to the outside of the drying machine. Meanwhile, in the condensing-type clothes dryer, moisture in the air is condensed, and thereby removed from the humid air. After that, the resulting dry air flows into the inside of the drum, thereby re-circulating the dry air in the drum.
According to the aforementioned related art, the condensing-type clothes dryer is generally provided with a cylinder-shaped drum, a circulation duct, a circulation fan, a heater, a condenser, a cooling fan, and a filter. The cylinder-shaped drum receiving the wet clothes (laundry) therein is connected to a driving motor by a belt, to rotate the drum. The circulation duct forms a circulation passage for air inside the drum, and the circulation fan circulates the air inside the drum through the circulation duct. Also, the heater heats the circulation air, and the condenser removes moisture from the humid circulation air. The cooling fan sends cool external air to the condenser, and the filter removes particles such as nap from the circulation air in the drum.
Referring to FIG. 1, the condenser of the related art condensing-type clothes dryer is provided with a plurality of condensing ducts 1a and a plurality of cooling fins 1b. The cooling fins 1b contact the condensing ducts 1a between the respective condensing ducts 1a. 
The condensing ducts 1a are connected to the center portion of the circulation ducts, so that the air including moisture the moist is circulated in the condensing ducts 1a as shown by an arrow 1 of FIG. 1. Generally, the cooling fins 1b have cross-sectional areas of waveforms, which are respectively provided between the condensing ducts 1a. At this time, pitches of the cooling fins 1b are equally formed.
The heat-exchange of the condenser in the related art condensing-type clothes dryer will be described with reference to FIG. 2.
Referring to FIG. 2, the humid air generated by drying the wet clothes in the drum is flowed into the inside of the plurality of condensing duct 1a, and the cool external air blown from the cooling fan 2 at one side of the condenser 1 is flowed into a portion having the cooling fins 1b between the condensing ducts 1a at the same time. Thus, the humid air passing through the inside of the condensing duct 1a makes a heat-exchange with the cool external air passing through between an outer surface of the condensing duct 1a and the cooling fins 1b, without being mixed.
That is, the high temperature and humid air flown from the condenser 1 indirectly makes the heat-exchange with the cool external air blown from the cooling fan 2 through the medium of the outer surface of the condensing duct 1a and the cooling fins 1b, thereby removing the moisture from the humid air by condensing the moisture in the humid air. Thus, the dry air is re-flown into the drum.
However, the related art condenser 1 performing a heat-exchange according to the aforementioned method has problems in that the heat-exchange is not smooth.
As shown in FIG. 2, an external air inlet A of the cooling fan 2 is narrower than an external air outlet B of the condenser 1, so that the external air flow is fast at the center portion of the condenser 1 through which the external air is blown. However, the external air flow is slow at the periphery portions of a longitudinal direction of the condenser 1. In FIG. 2, an arrow II indicates a flow speed of the external air, xe2x80x983xe2x80x99 indicates a driving motor, xe2x80x984xe2x80x99 indicates a duct for guiding the external air blown from the cooling fan 2 to the condenser 1.
Accordingly, the heat-exchange is good at the center portion of the longitudinal direction of the condenser 1 where the external air flows fast since the amount of the external air flown into the condenser 1 is large in a unit time period. Meanwhile, the heat-exchange is poor at the periphery portions of the longitudinal direction of the condenser 1 where the external air flows slowly since the amount of the external air flown into the condenser 1 is small in the unit time period. That is, it is hard to uniformly make the heat-exchange in the entire condenser 1 since the flow speed of the external air flown into the condenser 1 varies, thereby decreasing the heat-exchange efficiency of the condenser 1. Furthermore, the drying efficiency of the condensing-type clothes dryer is deteriorated.
Also, the flow speed of the external air passing through the condenser 1 changes, so that the air flow is unstable, thereby generating noise due to unstable circulation of the air.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a condenser of a condensing-type clothes dryer that substantially obviates one or more problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
An object of the present invention is to provide to a condenser of a condensing-type clothes dryer, which has good heat-exchange efficiency.
Additional advantages, objects, and features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.
To achieve these objects and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, a condenser of a condensing-type clothes dryer includes a plurality of condensing ducts provided in a middle portion of a circulation duct, the condensing ducts condensing air being circulated there-through after being discharged from a drum; and a plurality of cooling fins provided to be in contact with an outer surface of the condensing ducts, wherein an interval or a pitch of the cooling fins is different partially according to a flow rate of air blown from a cooling fan for heat-exchange with air flowing through the condensing duct.
In another aspect, a condensing-type clothes dryer includes a drum being rotatably provided in a cabinet; a circulation duct connecting an air inlet and outlet of the drum with each other for forming a circulation passage of air inside the drum; a condenser having a plurality of circulation ducts being provided in a middle portion of the circulation ducts the condensing ducts condensing air being circulated there-through after being discharged from the drum, and a plurality of cooling fins provided to be in contact with an outer surface of the condensing ducts, wherein an interval or a pitch of the cooling fins is different partially according to air flow rate for a heat-exchange with air flowing through the condensing duct; a cooling fan provided at one side of the condenser for cooling the condenser; and a motor driving the drum and the cooling fan.
Preferably, the pitch or interval of the cooling fins is narrow at a portion where air blown from the cooling fan flows fast, and the pitch or internal of the cooling fins is wide at a portion where air blown from the cooling fan flows slowly.
Preferably, the cooling fin has a longitudinal-section of a waveform having pitches, which is provided between the condensing ducts.
Preferably, the cooling fins are provided in a board type for being penetrated by the condensing duct.
Preferably, the intervals or pitches of the cooling fins gradually become wider as they move out to a portion where air blown from the cooling fan flows slowly.
Preferably, the intervals or pitches of the cooling fins are equally narrow at a portion where air blown from the cooling fan flows fast, and the intervals of the cooling fins are equally wide at a portion where air blown from the cooling fan flows slowly.
Preferably, the intervals or pitches of the cooling fins gradually become narrower to the center portion of the longitudinal direction of the condenser where air blown from the cooling fan flows fast, and the pitches of the cooling fins are equally wide at a portion where air blown from the cooling fan flows slowly.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description of the present invention are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.